Trouble with a wired home network

[Randybob]

I am attempting to network my computer with my dad's, so I can print to his USB printer. Both our computers are connected to a router via cables, and both are running XP Pro. I just ran the wizard, set them both up in the MSHOME workgroup, they both have different names, and File and Print Sharing is enabled. I restarted them both, and neither computer can see the other. What am I doing wrong?

 

[jlazzaro]

http://www.ezlan.net/sharing.html

 

[Randybob]

Originally posted by: jlazzaro
http://www.ezlan.net/sharing.html

That's not exactly easy to understand for those who are new to networking.

 

[JackMDS]

Combine the general content of the page likned before with this.

Vista File and Printer Sharing- http://www.microsoft.com/techn...evaluate/vista_fp.mspx

Basic XP - http://www.microsoft.com/techn...ntain/filesharing.mspx

Advanced XP - http://support.microsoft.com/d...x?scid=kb;en-us;304040

Printer Sharing XP - http://www.microsoft.com/windo...t/honeycutt_july2.mspx

Windows Native Firewall setting for Sharing XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875357

Windows XP patch for Sharing with Vista - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120

 

[bpatters69]

RandyBob,

You have to set up the PC with the USB printer for sharing. See below:

Share and Share Alike
After I installed my new printer on the computer, I wanted to use it from other computers. I even wanted to print from my laptop computer, sitting on the patio, connecting to the network with a wireless NIC. Before I could do that, I had to share the printer. Windows XP doesn't automatically share printers, which is a good thing when you don't want to share your toys.

To share the printer, I opened the Printers and Faxes folder on the computer that was connected to my printer.

To open the Printers and Faxes folder

? Click Start and then click Control Panel.

? Click Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Printers and Faxes.

? In the Printers and Faxes folder, I clicked the printer's icon and, in the tasks pane, I clicked Share This Printer.

? I opened the printer's Properties dialog box, and clicked on the Sharing tab.

? I clicked Share Name, and then clicked OK.


That's it?the printer was immediately available for other computers to use.

Now that I had a network printer, I was ready to connect to it and print from other computers on the network.

To connect to the printer

? I opened Control Panel, and clicked Printers and Other Hardware.

? I clicked Add a Printer.

? Instead of adding a local printer, though, I clicked Printer Connection and then browsed the network for the printer.


The whole process took less than a minute before I was printing to the network printer as though it was connected to the computer.


Check the silly stuff. Printer is on and PC connected to printer are on. Have you checked network connectivity between the PCs? Pinging each PC?

One last comment. I have a Netgear Router and two computers and one printer. I bought a Netgear Print Server Device so I could share the USB printer without having to directly connect the printer to a PC or have the connected PC turned on. The USB printer becomes an addresseable device on the network meaning I can see the printer as a connected device. I print directly to the print server which spools jobs and sends the job to the printer over the network.

 

[dfnkt]

make sure that you have an account setup on the machine that the printer is setup with, and that you have permission to use the printer.

 

[Randybob]

I was able to get the printer shared, but I had to use NetBEUI. The only problem I'm having now is that while I can see shared documents on the other machines, I get an Access Denied message. I have set the folders to share with absolutely everybody, and the documents in question are NOT read-only. Everyone is set to have Full Control.